TALL TALES: REAL LIFE TOP TEN

27 Dec TALL TALES: REAL LIFE TOP TEN

Editor’s note: Telluride Inside… and Out’s monthly column, Tall Tales, is so named because contributor Mark Stevens is one long drink of water. He is also long on talent. Mark is the author of “Antler Dust” and “Buried by the Roan,” both on the shelves of Telluride’s own Between the Covers Bookstore, 224 West Colorado Ave, Box 2129. He is also a former reporter (Denver Post, Christian Science Monitor, Rocky Mountain News) and television producer (MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour) now working in public relations – and occasionally publishing books. As 2012 screeches to an end – and the world didn’t – below find Mark’s Best Of list.

With apologies to the inimitable Greil Marcus, who posts “Real Life Rock Top Ten” for Believer Magazine (part of the whole intriguing and tart McSweeney’s empire) and who has been posting some version of “Real Life Top Ten” for decades, a smattering of random notes:

Becoming Van Gogh

•  Vincent van Gogh. That is, becoming Vincent. The evolution. The growth. The work. The refinement and focus. Malcolm Gladwell made famous the 10,000-hour rule: the dedication required to get better. To get truly “better.” At anything. To figure things out. Don’t miss this serene, stunning show from one individual who, once he figured out his purpose in life, was able to change his style and grow continually like few others. How could one person see so much and capture it on canvas? At the Denver Museum of Art through January 20.

•  Wussy. Yes, a rock band from Cincinnati. Obscure but highly praised by none other than the dean of rock criticism himself, Robert Christgau, who wrote: “Once their songs have sunk in, you can’t get enough of them, and not just the refrains—the intros, the verses, the guitar licks, the vocal interpolations, the bass and keyboard parts.” And Wussy was kind enough this year to put out a compilation of their discs to date, “Buckeye.” Hard not to like the vocal interplay of Chuck Cleaver and Lisa Walker. I hear Salem 66. I hear bits of The Strokes, with multiple musical themes in every song. I hear Sleater-Kinney and, yes, the typical Wussy song takes time to sink in. But once it does, watch out. Recommended: “Pulverized,” “Pizza King.”

 •  Bob Dylan. Not quite as obscure as Wussy, but if you’ve ever been a fan, don’t miss “Tempest.” And catch him live if you can if you can: the lighting, the staging and that killer rhythm section and that avalanche of music and poetry. And then you think about all he’s done, what he stands for. The Knopfler-Dylan show this year in beautiful Broomfield was a knock-out. It was the same night as Hurricane Sandy back East when he played the Storm & Water quartet, “The Levee’s Gonna Break,” “Shelter from the Storm,” “High Water (For Charley Patton)” and “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall.”

•  Scriptnotes. If you think about writing in any form, fiction or screenplays, consider this podcast with John August and Craig Mazin. Download from iTunes and absorb the world of telling stories and how they should be structured and what makes them work. August and Mazin are real-deal, big-time screenwriters. This is like going to film class for free. The three-page challenge is one of my favorite segments, when would-be screenwriters have the first three pages of their screenplay drafts critiqued. Not for the faint of heart. What makes a movie work—or fail.

•  Bookworm. A podcast about writers and books that will make you feel like you’re back in college—or that you never left. Michael Silverblatt digs deep into “serious” fiction. As far as I can tell, no genre pulp allowed.

•  Sound Opinions. Yep, another podcast. Podcasts are perfect. You program your own radio station, essentially. (I mean, the podcast world is endless.) Hats off to Jim Kot and John DeRogatis for sound opinions on new music and old. Didn’t really care for their “Best of 2012” picks, for instance, but I really admire how they keep up. Their shows about punk history were brilliant recaps. These guys are just flat-out smart. Their live segments are uniformly well produced and when they play a clip, it’s most of the song.

•  Visual Thesaurus. If you play with words or enjoy language in any way, shape or form. I keep this web site open when I’m writing, just for the stimulation. Who thought of this?

•  Pitchfork. If you need a jolt to your music mix. Who can keep up any longer? Answer: nobody. But Pitchfork will give you a jolt. Or could.

•  John Galligan. The mystery writer. I’ve read three—“The Blood Knot,” “The Clinch Knot,” and “Wind Knot”—in the past 12 months. Ned Oglivie is running from a sad part of his life back East and is out driving around in his RV, sipping vodka-Tang and looking for a good stretch of river to wet flies. These are wry, funny, and utterly human mysteries and Oglivie gets tangled up in the darkness on shore. Galligan was kind enough to drop by book review website for an interview http://wp.me/plqD1-p0 earlier this month. If you know someone who digs fly fishing and/or mysteries, Galligan might be your Woolly Bugger.

Turkey rolls

•  Turkey Rolls. A family staple for about 20 years, here it is. Get about a cup and a half of seasoned bread crumbs. Soak this in the whites from one egg and a quarter-cup or so of milk. Mix bread crumb mixture with a pound of ground turkey, add salt and pepper if you want. Divide into four rolls, like mini-loafs. Brown all four rolls in a skillet. While the rolls are browning up (did I mention—brown all sides of all four rolls?) take a can of whole-berry cranberry and put it in bowl with about a half-cup of dry white wine. By the way, use the good cranberry sauce or make your own. It’s time to splurge. Okay, mix the cranberry sauce and wine together. Pour over turkey rolls and add a chicken bouillon cube to the pot. Simmer away for about 20 to 25 minutes, until rolls are firm and done. Occasionally ladle some sauce over the rolls and you can flip them over once if you want. Serve over cooked wide noodles and then pour that thickened-up cranberry sauce over turkey and noodles. Great with a side of steamed broccoli. Eat. As van Gogh noted in a letter to his brother (October, 1888) “eating decent cooked food” can have a lot to do with good ideas coming your way.  “That is what everyone who paints ought to have.”